Captura, an electrochemical platform provider and trailblazer in direct ocean capture (DOC) technology, has entered into a strategic partnership with ElectraLith, who will use Captura’s bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED) for lithium extraction.
Under this partnership and certain terms and conditions, ElectraLith will procure BMED stacks from Captura over an initial period of five years.
Pioneered at Caltech and manufactured at Captura’s production facility in Pasadena, California, the BMED technology offers up to a tenfold performance improvement compared to leading alternatives.
Originally developed to power Captura’s DOC systems, the BMED technology is now applicable across a range of other sectors, including direct lithium extraction, desalination and wastewater valorization, energy storage, and electrochemical CO2 capture and removal.
ElectraLith already procured BMED stacks in June 2026 for two commercial-scale DLE-R pilot plants expected to be commissioned in early 2027. Moving forward, the company expects to place orders for additional BMED stacks once it reaches successful pilot operations for DLE-R’s global deployment.
“Captura’s BMED technology fully unlocks DLE-R’s potential to deliver the cleanest, most versatile, and most cost-efficient method of extracting and refining lithium, the fundamental element of a sustainable future,“ said Charlie McGill, CEO of ElectraLith. “It also unlocks DLE-R’s potential to support a fully domestic US lithium supply chain,” he added.
Relevant: Captura Secures New $12.5M To Grow The US Production Of Its Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis Tech
Captura’s BMED platform has multiple applications
The novel BMED technology enables efficient electrochemical separation and conversion processes that run with a significantly lower energy consumption and capital costs than conventional BMED systems available today.
This innovation can support multiple steps in lithium extraction and refining and is currently applicable for integration in a broad range of solutions, delivering improved efficiency, economics, and sustainability performance to producers.
Captura’s Chief Operating Officer Christene Banda highlighted that this strategic partnership marks an important commercial milestone for Captura as ElectraLith becomes its first major customer for the electrodialysis platform.
She said, “It validates the strength of our proprietary membrane technology and demonstrates the value of combining our teams’ complementary expertise and technologies to develop a differentiated solution for the lithium market.”
Read more: Captura Gears Up For Commercial Deployment With New HQ In Pasadena
